Function of Core Unit as a Resource to the Program Project Grant Core C Overview The purpose of the Analytical Glycotechnology Core is to provide the technical expertise and instrumentation necessary to structurally characterize sialic acids, N- and O-linked glycans and GAGs isolated from cells or tissues from transgenic animals provided by the Project Leader's laboratories. The core will greatly benefit from access to the instruments, reagents, and expertise in the existing Glycotechnology Core Resource of the UCSD Glycobiology Research and Training Center (GRTC). Many of the techniques to be employed for these analyses (glycosphingolipid extraction, isolation of glycans, sialic acid and sialic acid derivative analysis including NeuSGc, glycosyl linkage analysis including terminal sialic acid linkages (a2-3/a2- 6) using GC-MS, glycan profiling by MALDI-TOF MS/ MS-MS and 2-AB fluorescent labeled NP-HPLC, GAG disaccharide analysis by HPLC and ESI-MS) were devised during the previous funding period. The availability of high quality instrumentation, coupled with the many combined years of analytical glycobiology experience represented by the members of the Glycotechnology Core Resource, allow us to meet the analytical challenges proposed by the Project Leaders and to perform the analyses necessary to support their research.